Thank you for signing the petition. And ScareCrow, than you for the laugh. Sad, that someone would actually do something like that on something this important.

@f,

I've been trying to post the following everywhere I can, so I hope you don't mind:

I have read quite a few statements from those who oppose this measure, stating that why is it necessary to grant anonymity to men (people?) accused of this one crime, and not others?

Here is my response:

Why is it, that we grant anonymity to accusers of this one crime, and no others? To pull out the line that feminists love to use when it is to thier advantage, it's called "equality".

For no other class of crime, do we grant the accuser anonymity. So if this one crime is so special, or so horrific, then all involved should be anonymous, or none should, and a crime this special or horrific, will carry a stigma, regardless of the veracity of the complaint.

I signed it. I think this makes sense as the mere accusation of rape or sexual misconduct can ruin a man's reputation forever even if he is innocent. This happened to a man in my church who was my Sunday School teacher as well as a junior high school teacher. Two students who were angry with him for bad grades accused him of molesting them. It was a horrible time for him and his family and our church. My father was the minister and our family stood by him because we knew he was innocent. But many people left the church because they assumed the accusations must be true. He also lost his teaching job. He was asked to resign. Eventually, the girls recanted their accusations but this man's life was ruined. That stain of presumed guilt never goes away.Considering the magnitude of damage these kinds of accusations can do, I think it is important to keep anonymity for the accused. And it's important from a justice standpoint as well to ensure a fair trial and protect the accused from public condemnation. It's supposed to be "innocent until proven guilty" but I find that is rarely the case. People make their judgements before knowing the facts.

You might recall that I was going to post an entry built around a comment that you made. So. . just for the record, I haven't forgotten about that. I've been busy and sidetracked, and haven't found time (energy) to get around to it yet. But. . I will.